LATEST ADDITIONS

On the morning of November 9th, 2018, Stereophile's caffeinated crew of Jim Austin, Sasha Matson, Herb Reichert, and myself arrived at the New York Audio Show with the intention to invade each exhibitor's room as an opinion-bearing, glad-handing tribe. ("Hello—we've come from Stereophile to put fear into your heart and a quick step to your cueing finger. Now play me some Nils Lofgren!")

Joan Baez In Concert, Part 2
Joan Baez, vocals, guitar
Vanguard VTC-1679 (tape), VSD-2123 (LP). Maynard Solomon, prod., Reice Hamel, eng. TT: 48:00.

Well, we finally got ourselves equipped to review 4-track open-reel tapes, via a slightly modified Ampex F-44. All the tapes we have auditioned had noticeably higher hiss than the average stereo disc, but this was not loud enough to be distracting except when the tapes were reproduced at very high levels. Even then, we found the smooth, even hiss to be less objectionable than the ticks and pops from some discs played at the same level.

We know, we know, it's only November 12. But it's one heck of an issue, featuring our Products of 2018, and it's hitting newsstands, tablets, and mailbox now! The versatile Ovation PA 8.2 preamplifier from German company AVM is featured on the December cover and this issue's line-up of reviews has a European flavor: as well as the AVM, we audition Elac's Adante AF-61 speaker and EMT's HSD 006 phono cartridge (Germany); the ATC CDA2 CD player, Harbeth P3ESR minimonitor, and Wharfedale Diamond 11.2 bookshelf speaker (UK); Ortofon SPU Wood pickup head (Denmark); and Aqua Formula xHD DAC (Italy).